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Scala 2.12.0 is now available

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Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird to blame current Scala versions for not supporting end of life versions. You can still use Java 6 and Scala 2.11. It's just that Java 6 will not receive any bug fixes or security updates, and Scala 2.11 will not either. But both will continue to work. Seems very sane to me.

> Weird to blame current Scala versions for not supporting end of life versions. I didn't. > will not receive any bug fixes or security updates, and Scala 2.11 will not either Oh, I'm pretty sure that Scala 2.11 will receive fixes, security updates and even backports of features for a very long time. For example SI-2712 is getting back-ported to Scala 2.11.9 and there's even talk of back-porting it to Scala 2.10.

The last announced plan was to conclude 2.11.x with 2.11.9 (currently at 2.11.8).

Maybe we'll see longer support for people who don't migrate (heck, SBT still uses 2.10.x), but justifying it by Java version is weird.

If you're okay with using old Java versions, it's not much of a stretch to say you'll be okay with old Scala versions.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#42
post #36
post #5

This is the version of Scala that breaks compatibility with Java 6 in the generated bytecode, by making use of Java 8's features, like invokedynamic, default interface methods and integration with SAM types. This is great because the generated bytecode is smaller and more resistant to binary compatibility issues. Scala has had problems with binary compatibility because its features don't map that well on top of the J…

> the world is not ready to fully commit to Java 8, as sadly there are projects like Android that are holding us back. This is only going to get worse after Java 9 and 10 get released. I imagine by the time we get Java 10, Google might be considering to eventually cherry pick Java 9 features. They just forked the whole eco-system, and lots of people blindly post links to their Java 8 references, without looking into…

Well I was against Oracle suing them with their copyright and patents and I still am, but Google did fragment the Java ecosystem and should be blamed for it. They just pulled an embrace, extend, then fuck it up.

I can understand why they wanted to bootstrap their stuff on top of Java, but now they are clearly not committed to keeping up. And with all of their resources, I just won't believe they can't do it.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#43

Does anyone have any tips for learning Scala? I want to learn the language, it looks very interesting, and I have some familiarity with Scheme, Haskell and Ocaml, but I just don't know how to start. What should I read? What should I build?

In addition to everything that's been recommended in this thread, Functional Programming in Scala is very nice. I read it after taking the Coursera course and working a bit on a Play project. Familiarity with Haskell and Ocaml will certainly help.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#44
post #24

What grabbed my attention the most in terms of Scala is Dotty. New compiler for Scala, who's main goal is simplification and reorganization of language. You know it will be for real when even Martin is working on it! This language has bright future. Edit: grammar, sry.

Well Martin also worked on scalac, with all its warts & problems, so you can't say that it will be better just because he's also working on it. :) IMO much more important is the fact that Dotty is being developed after several years and iterations of scalac. Ideally this would mean that the problems to be solved, and the different ways to solve them are known. Dotty can do this without having a large legacy inherited…

Have you heard any of his presentations on the new compiler architecture?

I'm incredibly impressed with the stewardship of Scala: they did a thorough assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of language and compiler and are working on a complete refoundation of the language semantics and a rewrite of the compiler while also steadily progressing along a multi year roadmap for the current compiler.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#45
post #35

Offtopic. Does anybody know of a practical imperative language in which promises are implicit? Often, when writing software, it happens that deeply nested functions suddenly have to return a promise instead of a direct value, and this forces the programmer to rewrite all the callers of that function into dealing with promises, which of course sucks. So it would be better if the programming language would do that rewr…

looks like async/await (C#) is close to what you're looking for.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#46
post #35

Offtopic. Does anybody know of a practical imperative language in which promises are implicit? Often, when writing software, it happens that deeply nested functions suddenly have to return a promise instead of a direct value, and this forces the programmer to rewrite all the callers of that function into dealing with promises, which of course sucks. So it would be better if the programming language would do that rewr…

There's Async Await. Which makes asynchronous code look like regular blocking code. But the calling code needs to know about it.

I recognise your concern: asynchronicity is infectious if it's manifested as monads. Which sucks. Client code needs to know whether the code it is calling is blocking or asynchronous.

Maybe effect systems can trace through code whether it is 'infected' with blockingness. Without any change showing in the intermediary source code. The blockingness/non-blockingness only manifesting itself at the top of the call graph.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#47
post #32
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>continued effort regarding Scala.js It's a shame the documentation is so poor for scalajs.

Could you elaborate on specific points that would require improvements? Most feedback I receive says it's good. If those of you who think it's poor only tell us "it's poor", there is nothing we can do to improve it.

I'm about to start using it again, but one point: the installation page[1] doesn't actually tell you how to install it...

[1] http://www.scala-js.org/doc/

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#48
post #32
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>continued effort regarding Scala.js It's a shame the documentation is so poor for scalajs.

Could you elaborate on specific points that would require improvements? Most feedback I receive says it's good. If those of you who think it's poor only tell us "it's poor", there is nothing we can do to improve it.

For what it's worth, I've found the documentation to be quite good, and easy to follow. Thanks for all of your hard work.

Having said that, I agree it would be good to hear more from people who dislike the current documentation. Scala.js is a great project, and so it seems worthwhile to make any documentation changes that would make it accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weird to blame current Scala versions for not supporting end of life versions. I didn't. > will not receive any bug fixes or security updates, and Scala 2.11 will not either Oh, I'm pretty sure that Scala 2.11 will receive fixes, security updates and even backports of features for a very long time. For example SI-2712 is getting back-ported to Scala 2.11.9 and there's even talk of back-porting it to Scala 2.10.

The last announced plan was to conclude 2.11.x with 2.11.9 (currently at 2.11.8). Maybe we'll see longer support for people who don't migrate (heck, SBT still uses 2.10.x), but justifying it by Java version is weird. If you're okay with using old Java versions, it's not much of a stretch to say you'll be okay with old Scala versions.

Yep, 2.11.9 is the last planned release, but we would release another one for security fixes or anything as severe. If we get customer requests for backports, we (usually) also release those publicly.

Thanks for your support!

Re: Scala 2.12.0 is now available

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weird to blame current Scala versions for not supporting end of life versions. I didn't. > will not receive any bug fixes or security updates, and Scala 2.11 will not either Oh, I'm pretty sure that Scala 2.11 will receive fixes, security updates and even backports of features for a very long time. For example SI-2712 is getting back-ported to Scala 2.11.9 and there's even talk of back-porting it to Scala 2.10.

The last announced plan was to conclude 2.11.x with 2.11.9 (currently at 2.11.8). Maybe we'll see longer support for people who don't migrate (heck, SBT still uses 2.10.x), but justifying it by Java version is weird. If you're okay with using old Java versions, it's not much of a stretch to say you'll be okay with old Scala versions.

> If you're okay with using old Java versions, it's not much of a stretch to say you'll be okay with old Scala versions.

No, because Scala doesn't offer forward binary or source compatibility. Maintainers of widely-used Java libraries can write and build for Java 6 and be confident their libraries will be usable by everyone (on Android and off). Maintainers of widely-used Scala libraries have no such option (for now they can write their code using the subset that works in Scala 2.11 and 2.12 and cross-build, but there's no guarantee that such a subset will be maintained in 2.13 and beyond).

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